Fortunately the male Desert Wheatear at Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire lingered from last weekend becoming Yorkshire tick 300 and something! Cracking little bird, and despite not showing on arrival, it did eventually show down to 18 inches as it flew up the cliff and hit the wind. Unfortunately it didn't alight close by but stayed just out of camera distance. The problem was compounded by some folk 'telling everyone' the bird was 'quite tame and liked people' !!! Hmmm... interesting then that when approached it flew further away. And the person who made the statement was rather offended when it was pointed out that their fieldcraft was rather lacking!!!
So hence here is another record shot! I don't take pics of Desert Wheatears that often and it is the first one I've twitched since 1997ish!
Within an hour, Neil Hart and myself had arrived at Tophill Low, East Yorkshire ready for some gull spotting. A flock of 49 or so White-fronted Geese appeared on D res, but news of a 'Greenland' White-front among them via the Birdguides website, I must admit, was created with some sceptism. Primarily due to recent claims via Birdguides of a Bonaparte's Gull and a Great-white Egret at the site... no names, just claims! So faced with the same information, naturally news of Greenland White-front got an 'Oh... right!'
However, great credit to Tim Cowley arriving and taking the Birdguides report seriously and taking the hike alongside D res to view Decoy fields and refinding the bird among a few more Eurasian White-fronts... 69 in total
Time for some record shots!
flavirostris White-fronted Goose
Not sure if it is a race tick for Tophill. No doubt folk will be scanning the archive records!
A bit of fieldcraft meant the Eurasion White-fronted also stayed for a picture!
A walk to Top Lock yield a single Short-eared Owl, a Pink-footed Goose and a Little Egret as the light started going.
The D res gull extravaganza featured an adult Yellow-legged Gull, while 2 Goosanders appeared late on and the 'Greenland' White-front became a D res tick.
Maybe the extra effort to do the overtime was worth working to get the day off!!!
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